1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the display of garments and other products for sale and, more particularly, security devices intended prevent garment/product theft, and even more particularly, to a secure hanger and display system with a releasable lock for use with a variety of garment/product types.
2. Description of the Background
In retail stores, conventional sales techniques for garments and other products require that they be displayed on racks and hangers such that consumers may readily view them and, when appropriate, remove them from the rack/hanger for the purpose of trying them on. However, theft of such merchandise, particularly expensive garments, from such display racks/hangers is a serious problem. This is true not only in retail stores, but even in cloakrooms and restaurants. Efforts to overcome the problem of garment/product theft have resulted in variety of security devices and, therefore, the present inventor is not the first to address means for securely displaying items for sale. For example, devices geared toward a solution are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,371 to Korth, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,758 to Ward, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,092 to DeSantis.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,371 to Korth discloses a security clothes-stand containing a number of holding rods which are retained in a supporting device, and on the top end of the device is mounted a clothes-hanger for receiving an article of clothing to be presented. The holding rods essentially consist of a base tube that is connected rigidly to the supporting device and on which a casing tube is rotatably mounted. The casing tube carries at its top end a lock attachment that contains a snap-in catch designed for the releasable retention of the clothes-hanger. A holding member of the clothes-hanger can be inserted into a receiving orifice in the snap-in catch and can be removed from the lock attachment only after the catch in the latter has been released. Unfortunately, the point at which the holding member is inserted in the lock attachment is often difficult to access, for the purpose of removing the article of clothing from the security clothes-stand, due to its position at an end of the hanger where it typically resides at the junction between the shoulder portion and sleeve section of a sleeved garment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,758 to Ward discloses a security device for clothing wherein a strong flexible cable is fastened at one end to a lock, carried on a hanger, or to a bar on a clothing stand. The cable is passed through part of a garment such as a sleeve and the other end of the cable is detachably secured in the lock to releasably secure the garment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,092 to DeSantis discloses a rack for securely displaying clothes while permitting the clothing to be tried on by a consumer. The rack includes a support stand and a hanger support bar mounted on the stand. The hanger support bar is hollow and has an elongated slot formed therein with a plurality of apertures along its length joined with the slot. Individual elongated flexible guard members having enlarged head portions at one end fit in any one of the apertures while preventing withdrawal through the slot. The guard members pass through a portion of a garment placed on a conventional hanger. Removal of the guards from the hanger support bar is prevented by a blocking device that can be moved between first and second positions to block the apertures. The end of the guard members which pass through the clothing are secured to a blocking device on the base of the display stand for preventing removal of a garment therefrom.
Unfortunately, the Ward and DeSantis devices, due to their use of flexible cables to secure clothing to a display stand, may be extremely tedious to utilize in a busy retail environment. Each time a consumer wants to try on a secured article of clothing, the flexible cable must be unlocked and removed from the sleeve of the garment by a salesperson and, if a sale is not made, the salesperson must place the cable back in position within the sleeve(s) of the garment before relocking the cable.
To the best of the knowledge of the present inventors, no prior design exists to address the problems outlined above. Consequently, it would be greatly advantageous to provide a garment security hanger and display apparatus that (1) possesses a readily accessible locking device, (2) possesses a rigid design that is easily removed from and returned to its working position within a garment, (3) possesses a simple, yet scalable, design fabricated of durable, lightweight materials, and (4) may be economically manufactured and sold to provide for widespread use.